JimB
New member
After talking up my bike trip up Whiteface I have to admit I wimped out 
. I arrived at the toll road on Saturday morning to meet with my partners to find 2-4 inches of new wet snow. I ran up to check out the surface and it seemed quite slippery so I opted to go with the XC skis. Two of the people had only brought road bikes also and I didn’t want to ride solo and be a poor sport. I enjoy skiing just about as much as cycling though, so it wasn’t a hard choice .
As we walked up the first section I noticed some Mt bike tracks and later we saw the riders coming down. One of the bikes had been pushed all the way to the summit as I would later see. Oh well .
The road had a little more snow coverage as we ascended so I soon put my skis on and walked from patch to patch really enjoying the experience. My partners carried theirs most of the way up until we got to about 3800 ft where the snow was deeper. They also had more expensive gear that they didn’t want to scratch. I had brought a pair of Fischer no wax light touring skis that I bought a few years ago at a garage sale for 5 dollars. I mounted a set of NNNBC bindings on them and they are great for skiing when there is a 0–2 inch base. They also have a very grippy base pattern which makes them quite versatile. They have no metal edges though and it took some pretty good snowplowing on the icy downhill to keep it sane .
Once we got to the last part where the hiking trail meets the road we stashed our skis because the road was blown clear and was pure ice. 2 of us barebooted, one had yaktrax and I used my Northern Lite snowshoes for their crampons. We stopped at the castle/snackbar building and put on all of our summit gear because of the severe winds and proceeded up the walkway. The stone work at this elevation was completely ice coated and gave the impression of being in an arctic environment . This, combined with the wind made for a serious adventure getting to the summit.
We got to the top, took some pictures, savored the 25 foot views and headed back down. The descent was a lot of fun with the skis and even though a lot of the snow had melted at the lower elevations I was able to milk out the glide to the very end by skiing on the slushy grass along the road side . It was a great little tune up hike for the upcoming winter season.
. I arrived at the toll road on Saturday morning to meet with my partners to find 2-4 inches of new wet snow. I ran up to check out the surface and it seemed quite slippery so I opted to go with the XC skis. Two of the people had only brought road bikes also and I didn’t want to ride solo and be a poor sport. I enjoy skiing just about as much as cycling though, so it wasn’t a hard choice .As we walked up the first section I noticed some Mt bike tracks and later we saw the riders coming down. One of the bikes had been pushed all the way to the summit as I would later see. Oh well
.The road had a little more snow coverage as we ascended so I soon put my skis on and walked from patch to patch really enjoying the experience. My partners carried theirs most of the way up until we got to about 3800 ft where the snow was deeper. They also had more expensive gear that they didn’t want to scratch. I had brought a pair of Fischer no wax light touring skis that I bought a few years ago at a garage sale for 5 dollars. I mounted a set of NNNBC bindings on them and they are great for skiing when there is a 0–2 inch base. They also have a very grippy base pattern which makes them quite versatile. They have no metal edges though and it took some pretty good snowplowing on the icy downhill to keep it sane
.Once we got to the last part where the hiking trail meets the road we stashed our skis because the road was blown clear and was pure ice. 2 of us barebooted, one had yaktrax and I used my Northern Lite snowshoes for their crampons. We stopped at the castle/snackbar building and put on all of our summit gear because of the severe winds and proceeded up the walkway. The stone work at this elevation was completely ice coated and gave the impression of being in an arctic environment
. This, combined with the wind made for a serious adventure getting to the summit.We got to the top, took some pictures, savored the 25 foot views
and headed back down. The descent was a lot of fun with the skis and even though a lot of the snow had melted at the lower elevations I was able to milk out the glide to the very end by skiing on the slushy grass along the road side . It was a great little tune up hike for the upcoming winter season.
